An occasional glimpse into the workings of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive (or comments on anything else that takes my fancy).

11 January 2012

Vires and all that

Just a thought.

If the Scottish Government lacks the legal authority "to legislate, and authorise spending arrangements, for" an independence referendum, as asserted by the Westminster government, then presumably the Scottish Government also lacks the legal authority to spend money on issuing a consultation paper on the matter, which it nevertheless did on 25 February 2010 (see here).

But I do not recall anyone in Westminster objecting on vires grounds to the Scottish Government's actions in relation to that consultation paper.